The Cold
by Incredibly Cold
Summary: Jamie Bennett has grown up, and it's time for him to move on.


It was the first snow of the year, and Jamie waited anxiously by the pond for Jack Frost to come. This was their usual meeting place, and he knew that the spirit would be here soon. The water was covered in a thick layer of ice and everything glimmered in the light from the full moon, which was streaming through the branches of the enormous willow whose branches stretched above their heads. It was a pretty place that Jack had first taken him to see years ago. He had found it some fifty years back just a mile or so away from the one he had drowned. They used to just sit and talk under the willow, because Jack wouldn't let him out on the ice for fear it would break and the worst would happen, but Jamie eventually convinced him that he could just freeze it over thicker. He was Jack Frost, after all.

After what seemed like forever the very person he had been waiting for landed on a snowbank a few yards away. he looked around for a moment before spotting Jamie.

The brown haired boy was sitting down on a log that he had put there all those years ago as a kind of bench. He nodded at the spot next to him, indicating that the other should sit, his expression serious.

The spirit was a bit curious as to what could possibly be such grave news that it would cause him to look as worried as he did now, and he sat down next to him, a knee to his chest. "Is everything alright?"

He shook his head slowly, "Jack, I can't see you anymore."

"What do you mean? You're talking to me. How can you possibly not see me if you know that I'm here?"

Jamie looked up at him sadly. "That's not what I meant. I can see you visibly and everything, I'm trying to say that this needs to stop. It's not healthy for me to be so hung up on a guy that most people can walk through."

Jack cocked his head to the side in confusion. "What do you mean 'hung up on'? We're just friends."

The other boy sighed. "That's exactly the problem. We're just friends and we will never be anything more. We can't ever be anything more. I'm going to die someday and you'll have to move on and find someone else you can be just friends with."

"I don't think I understand." Jack scooted closer, watching him wit his wide blue eyes.

He shook his head. "It's time for me to say goodbye. If you really love someone you have to let them go, right? It's time for me to let go. I'm already technically older than you, it's time."

Jack stared at him for what seemed like forever, realizing for the first time that he wasn't the same little boy he had met all that time ago, he was a man now. He had been through a lot in these past years, and it had taken its toll on him. He looked weak and beaten down. It was like everything that the guardians worked to protect had been taken away. "Jamie."

"No. It's time to stop this. I've already halfway convinced myself you aren't real and we can both move on. I'm thankful for everything you've done, but it's time for this to stop." He forced a smile. "You'll be fine without me, and I'll forget you because I have to."

"You're not thinking straight." He reached out to grab his hand, only to have him pull away.

"Jack, please just stop. This is hard for me too, but it needs to happen. I can't spend my life hopelessly in love with a dead guy who doesn't feel the same way. I'm sorry, but I just can't do it anymore."

He watched as a single tear fell from the brown eyes of his first believer. "In love? Are you saying... You're in love with me?"

Jamie's head tipped back to look at the stars "I've always loved you, Jack. You must have known that. You aren't blind, as much as you might want to be. Why do you think I skipped out on spending time with my friends? I went to prom my senior year with some girl who hates me now because I didn't even try to kiss her. I came home early so I could spend time with you. It was freezing and you were even colder but it was so much better than the actual dance. You didn't even notice when I tried to kiss you. I thought that you liked me the same way back then, but now I know better. I need to move on, Jack."

He stared at him open mouthed, remembering that night. He had told him about how much the dance sucked and how his date had been loud and obnoxious about everything. It had sounded horrible to him and he had told Jamie that he would give him a much better night than that and whisked him off out of the open window to their little pond. The high schooler had tried to teach him to dance in his nice suit until the sun was almost up. Had he really not noticed that maybe he had feelings for him? Did he really miss his believer trying to give him a kiss? No that wasn't it at all, he had been trying to ignore it. "Jamie, I'm sorry."

"Don't be sorry, it would never work. I understand why you avoided it, and now all I'm asking is that we stop this." He looked down, "I have something to give you though. You don't have to keep it if you don't want to, but at least wait until I'm not here to throw it away." He reached into his coat pocket and pulled out a familiar hat, the same one that he had worn when they first met. It hadn't fit on his head for a long time now, but he had kept it all these years.

"I can't take this."

He stood up slowly "Then give it to someone else. I don't want it anymore." He set it down right where he had been sitting before. "It just brings back memories, and I don't want to remember."

Jack watched him stand with tears in his eyes, he hadn't realized how attached to the man he had become. He looked back down to the hat, and put it on his head, surprised to find that it fit perfectly.

Jamie looked back at him sadly "You aren't real. I need to accept it now. All you've ever been is an imaginary friend to help me cope with a difficult time."

He shook his head as Jamie spoke, "I'm real. I'm right here, please don't do this to me." He reached out a hand to grab his shoulder, but instead of making contact his hand went right through him.

He stared at his shoulder, eyes wide with shock. "An imaginary friend is all you'll ever be. You can't touch me because you don't exist." He closed his eyes, "And when I open my eyes I won't be able to see you either. I'm accepting it. You're just a part of my thoughts. I created the perfect person to help me, but when I open my eyes you'll be gone." He looked a bit anxious as she opened them, the disappointment obvious on her face as he looked all around, searching for the person who was right in front of him. "You were never real."

Jack took a step backwards, the tears finally starting to spill over. "No. You can't do this. I'm right here in front of you." He tried to grab his hands, but again passed through them as though he were made of smoke. "You can't stop believing. Please stop it."

"STOP IT." his shout was surprisingly loud in the complete silence of the night. "You aren't real, and I'm not going to waste my time listening to my imaginary friend pleading with me to believe again. You're fake and you don't have a voice. You're only my imagination and I'm not going to hear you ever again. This is the end."

"Jamie, please. Please. I'm right here. I'll always be right here." He squeezed his blue eyes shut, causing more tears to fall. "Jamie, I love you too. I always have, but I was afraid. You're right. Someday you'll die and I won't be able to deal with that. I wanted to protect both of us, and I was wrong to do that, but please don't do this. I need you."

He was begging him at this point. How could he do this? How could he leave him all alone? Just when he thought it couldn't get any worse he heard a sound that made him stop sound of cracking ice.

Jack hadn't even realized that his dearest friend was on the ice at all, and by the look on his face the other hadn't either. He hadn't frozen over the pond today. Why hadn't he done that? What was wrong with him? Oh well, he could get him off pretty easily. He floated over to the man, careful not to put any more weight on the ice. He went to wrap an arm around him, only to pass through him again.

It was like the whole universe had shattered. He couldn't get him off the ice. It was impossible. He couldn't even touch him, let alone carry him off the pond. What could he do? Jamie was going to fall in if he didn't think of anything.

Jamie remained frozen where he was, a cold breeze going up to him and then right through him as though he weren't wearing anything at all. He shivered, wondering what it was for a moment before pushing the thought away. Jack Frost was a myth. He wished that he hadn't been an imaginary friend now, he couldn't have thought of someone who would be more useful at a time like this. He took a tentative step forward, trying not to shift his weight around too much. He heard a creak that didn't sound too bad, and took another step.

Jack watched with wide eyes as the other walked. He felt like he was frozen solid, no matter how hard he tried he couldn't move a muscle. It was a terrifying experience. Then the worst happened. As Jamie took his second step the ice gave way, plunging the young man into the freezing water before he could even cry out.

Jamie felt the ice breaking only a second before he could step back off of it. He watched the world pass by as if in slow motion as he fell into the icy water, the cold taking his breath away before he could make a sound. He couldn't see anything in the darkness, nor could he feel anything but the cold. He didn't know which way was up or down. Before long he was aware of a sheet of ice above him, and with the little strength left in him he beat on it, trying to get out. He screamed with the last of his air before everything went black and he felt no more.

Jack was suddenly released from his inability to move, and ran to the hole where the dark head of hair had vanished into. He reached his hands forward, but instead of going into the black water he quickly discovered that they had frozen it. He frantically tried to find a place where he could go in after Jamie and save him, but realized too late that he had completely frozen over the area where he had disappeared. He leapt to his feet as he felt something pounding feebly at the ice below him, and heard a muffled sound that soon went quiet.

He stared at the surface of the pond in horror. Below him he could see the face of Jamie Bennett trapped beneath the surface right where he had fallen in. He could have climbed back out if that spot was still broken. He fell back onto his knees as he realized that this was all his fault. He had eliminated any chance of his friend surviving. He was responsible for the dead body below him. It was all his fault. He was a killer.

Tears were falling much faster now, as he ripped off the hat and threw it away from him. What had he done? He wasn't trying to hurt anyone. What would Sophie do without her big brother? He looked up at the moon, hoping for some kind of sign.

"Please bring him back. I know you can do it, you brought me back. Let me die instead. He can be Jamie Frost and I'll be at the bottom of a pond like I should be. Please bring him back, I love him." He pleaded desperately, but the moon stayed as silent as ever.

Jamie never came back, and Jack kept on living.

It was a meaningless shell of a life now, without his first believer, without the man that he didn't realize he had loved until it was too late. The man who had died because he was the way he was. It was now that he realized what he really was. He wasn't a guardian, he was a monster. How could he say he protected the children who believed in him when he killed the first one? Everything he was, everything he ever had been was a lie. And it was all the moon's fault. He turned against the man in the moon, filled with hatred. Eventually he came to realize that the guardians were all a part of the moon. He hated them too. He hated everything that had to do with the moon. He hated the tide and the night and the stories about werewolves that people would tell. He hated it all even more than his old enemy Pitch did.

The king of nightmares wanted his help to defeat the guardians now, thinking that maybe he would join him in his quest to destroy them, but Jack hated him too. If he hadn't tried to make the children stop believing then Jamie never would have seen him. He would still be alive. But his refusal angered the other spirit, and he shot him with an arrow of black sand, much like he had done to the Sandman. The point was to bend him to his will, but the outcome was more than he ever could have guessed. Jack turned into a nightmare version of himself, yes, but he turned on Pitch in his anger, reducing him to almost nothing. He left the frozen wasteland of Antarctica and attacked children, giving them nightmares and frostbite and a fear of ice and snow. Some of them died in their beds, frozen solid in the middle of summer, helpless against his wrath. The guardians couldn't stop him, and it was too late for the man in the moon to help. It was too late to do anything.

Jamie never came back, and Jack kept on living.


End file.
